my new internship, my 47th post(!)

So it took probably more than a year (I haven't really kept track), but I've reached the magic number: 47 entries. Part of me says, "quit now! start a new blog! preserve this unto perpetuity!" But I'm probably not going to. Anyway, I thought a little celebration was in order, so: 47! largest prime less than 50! pomona's lucky number for some reason! and so on.

I also have some other things to say right now, too.

First off, I started my internship at Legal Aid in east LA this week; I've been in monday and today like 10-4ish. So far, it's been interesting: the people are nice, the work is worthwhile, and so on. The kicker, though, is the lunches. Freshman year, I got fixated for some reason on the critically-lauded fish taco mecca Tacos Baja Ensenada. I never actually made it all the way out to wherever it was (my sense of regional geography at that point being fairly unrefined), but the idea of living so close to such amazing food made me feel good about the city of LA in general. First day of work, my supervisor asks me where I want to go for lunch, and I mention something about missing real Mexican food horribly this summer and hearing east LA is a pretty good area for tacos. She gets excited, and recommends this little place, maybe a block away, for tacos. Well, surprise! It is, lo and behold, Tacos Baja Ensenada. And it's just as good as advertised. I've been there for lunch both days I've worked (and I normally skip lunch), and it has been nothing short of heavenly. Wednesdays are even better: it's $.99 taco day, so today I got three fish tacos and a jamaica for less than $5. Although I hope to do some more east LA restaurant exploration this fall (I hear there's a place nearby on Olympic that has really good al pastor), I think I could be happy if I could just have Tacos Baja Ensenada every day--eating perfectly fried fish and cabbage in homemade tortillas with an horchata and a crossword while sitting in the sun on Whittier Blvd is hard to beat.

The commute is bad, but not lethal. This afternoon, stuck for half an hour in traffic that never stopped moving yet somehow never went faster than about 7mph, I finally understood why people in LA don't drive a stick. On the plus side, my left leg will be pretty nicely toned by the end of the semester with all the clutchwork. Also, sitting in the car with nothing to do and nobody to carpool with is a great time to call all those people you're barely in touch with but wish you talked with more often. Only now apparently California is considering making talking on the phone in the car illegal. I feel like this makes sense on surface streets, but, honestly, it's not like driving in stop-and-go-never-above-second-gear traffic is that hard. In fact, it can get so monotonous, part of me def wants to pull out the NYT crossword and work on it on the dashboard, which is way more distracting. So there.

Food thesis is already shaping up better than the legal access one. Missed first classes/assignment of the semester tuesday, but I think I have more perspective than I used to. Still in love with the Watson proposal. Annnnnnd, I think that's all for now.